1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mounting arrangements in general, and more particularly to arrangements for mounting miniature lights on tree branches, particularly those of a Christmas tree, or on similar substantially cylindrical supports.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various constructions of arrangements for attaching lights to the branches of a Christmas tree have been known from time immemorial, ever since candles have been used to illuminate such trees. Of course, back then it was indispensable to employ such attaching or holding arrangements and to construct them in such a manner as to safely hold the candles in their upright positions to minimize dripping of the molten wax and reduce the danger of setting the tree on fire to a minimum. Consequently, such a candle holding arrangement was quite an elaborate affair, typically including, besides a spring-loaded tong-action clasping device, a holder for the bottom portion of the candle and a dish-shaped formation surrounding the holder and serving to capture molten wax that may have found its way into it after flowing on the exterior of the candle and that of the holder.
With the advent of the use of miniature electrical lights instead of candles for such and similar illumination purposes, the need for holding the lights in their upright or erect positions became less pronounced; obviously, no wax drips from the miniature lights and the amount of heat generated by each of them during normal operation is so minuscule that there is no danger of setting the tree on fire even if their glass envelopes or bulbs are in contact with the tree foliage or branches for an extended period of time. In view of this, miniature light sets are often merely placed from above on the respective branches, and their light bulbs are allowed to hang down or extend in whichever direction they may assume by chance.
While the impression given by the miniature lights under these circumstances may be acceptable to many, to others it detracts from the festivity of the occasion by evoking a certain degree of disorderliness and failing to project an aesthetic appeal reminiscent of that of real candles. In view of this, there has been developed at least one type of a mounting arrangement for miniature lights.
This known arrangement includes a holder for the miniature light that is constructed as a split sleeve including two shell portions joined with one another at the bottom and separated from each other at diagonally opposite locations by two vertical slots, with all directions mentioned herein being as considered in the position in which the mounting arrangement is used to attach the miniature light in its erect position to the respective branch. When the miniature light (actually, its socket) is inserted into the sleeve, the wires connecting the miniature light with the other lights of the light set and/or with the plug pass through the aforementioned slots. The inner diameter of the split sleeve may be slightly smaller than the outer diameter of the miniature light socket so that the latter is received in the sleeve with a slight interference fit caused by the elastically yieldable shell portions being pushed apart. This measure prevents the miniature light from accidentally falling out or even being inadvertently pushed or pulled out of the split sleeve.
The bottom portion of the split sleeve is provided with two generally strip-shaped integral projections extending along a common plane and spaced from each other in that plane by a distance at least slightly smaller than the anticipated diameter of the branch on which the miniature light is to be mounted. However, since it is recognized that the branch diameters on even artificial trees, and even more on real trees, differ from one another to a considerable degree either from branch to branch or along the same branch, and coupled with the realization that the person decorating or trimming the tree is often not able to freely choose the branch section of an acceptable diameter for mounting the light on, it was proposed to include in a set of such mounting arrangements a number of such arrangements having a smaller distance between the plate-shaped projections, and another number of such arrangements exhibiting a larger such distance for mounting on thicker branches.
Of course, this solution leaves much to be desired in that it frequently requires the user to remove the previously chosen mounting arrangement already installed on the miniature light socket and replace it with a different one after having noticed that at the location chosen for that particular miniature light the branch is either too thick or too thin for using such previously chosen mounting arrangement thereon.